Man-tiques

After waking up to this amazing view we enjoyed a breakfast of eggs and country ham,

headed back down the gravel road,

and out onto the Blue Ridge Parkway

to investigate the nearby town of Blowing Rock.

Since we aren't so much into prissy touristy boutiques and “mining” for gemstones while playing mini-golf we opted to peruse the local antique shops (surprise, surprise). We spied some interesting sights in town

but other than that didn't find much that piqued our interest or our curiosity. I was sad to find so many “antique” shops (and I use that term lightly) loaded with reproduction furniture and we marveled that the shop owners almost seemed proud to tell us that the furniture was recently imported from Indonesia. Just as we were about to call it a day we spied this sign.

Turns out Hatchet Jack is also the local U-Haul dealer as well. His 8,000 square foot warehouse shop is a festival of taxidermy,man-tiques, cabin décor and honest to goodness real live antique furniture and smalls!

Fur pelts, taxidermy and Depression glass...now that's a table setting any man would love!

It was fun to chat him up about the state of the antiques biz these days and after exchanging business cards he promised to look us up if he ever found himself in Ithaca. I came away with a perfect vintage Fiesta two pint pitcher in gray.

We planned to explore the cottage property on foot this afternoon but an afternoon thunder, lightening and hail storm kept us inside.
The fog and the lightening were so dramatic it elevated weather watching to a whole new level.